Lot Essay
Kingsbury Run (first version) is one of the first of Stella's twelve Aluminum paintings. Begun soon after his solo exhibition of Black paintings at the Leo Castelli Gallery, the Aluminum series marks the artist's earliest attempt to alter the shape of the canvas. Historically, earlier artists had worked on non-traditional canvas shapes, but Stella's conception marked a radical departure in that the pattern painted on the canvas and the format of the field were totally integrated without, however, turning the canvas into a painted wall relief.
As has often been the case in Stella's career, his own explanation and motivation for such a significant direction are described by him in precise, matter-of-fact terms. After the Black paintings, Stella reports that he began "thinking more about the individual units of the pattern--the bands. They are about the 'travelling' of the bands. In other words, a band moves along, jogs to the side, and turns again to resume its original direction. That makes up a given unit: a band with a jog in it. And then everything is worked out to make that consistent. (see W. Rubin, Frank Stella, New York 1970, p. 47.)
Stella then confronted the desire to follow the concept of consistency to its logical conclusion, addressing himself to the compositional "left-over" spaces like the two small squares in the upper left and lower right-hand corners of Kingsbury Run, which he literally cut out. From such simple beginnings, Stella would to create ever more radical explorations of shaped paintings, works which owe their origins to the Aluminum paintings.
Equally important was Stella's use of metallic paints, which also appears first in the Aluminum paintings and came to play a significant role in the artist's oeuvre. Stella was attracted to the abstract, spatially ambiguous quality of the aluminum paint.
Finally, the titles of the Aluminum paintings were more varied in their associations than those of the Black paintings. Kingsbury Run, with a single diagonal track, reminded Stella of a ravine in Cleveland which had been the site of a celebrated murder. (Rubin, ibid, p. 63)
As has often been the case in Stella's career, his own explanation and motivation for such a significant direction are described by him in precise, matter-of-fact terms. After the Black paintings, Stella reports that he began "thinking more about the individual units of the pattern--the bands. They are about the 'travelling' of the bands. In other words, a band moves along, jogs to the side, and turns again to resume its original direction. That makes up a given unit: a band with a jog in it. And then everything is worked out to make that consistent. (see W. Rubin, Frank Stella, New York 1970, p. 47.)
Stella then confronted the desire to follow the concept of consistency to its logical conclusion, addressing himself to the compositional "left-over" spaces like the two small squares in the upper left and lower right-hand corners of Kingsbury Run, which he literally cut out. From such simple beginnings, Stella would to create ever more radical explorations of shaped paintings, works which owe their origins to the Aluminum paintings.
Equally important was Stella's use of metallic paints, which also appears first in the Aluminum paintings and came to play a significant role in the artist's oeuvre. Stella was attracted to the abstract, spatially ambiguous quality of the aluminum paint.
Finally, the titles of the Aluminum paintings were more varied in their associations than those of the Black paintings. Kingsbury Run, with a single diagonal track, reminded Stella of a ravine in Cleveland which had been the site of a celebrated murder. (Rubin, ibid, p. 63)